
SUNGAI PETANI: Residents in the areas under an enhanced movement control order (MCO) were seen receiving food supplies over barbed wire placed around the multiple exits in their housing areas.
Security guard Zairullain Hassan, 50, collected the bag from a friend.
“They have placed barbed wire and blocked all our exits.
“I have yet to be tested and it may take a few days but in the meantime, I have children to feed.
“I work as a security guard at a school outside the perimeter so I had to inform them that I won’t be able to go to work,” he said when met near his house in the Kenanga zone in Aman Jaya, Kedah.
Army retiree Nazri Dahman, 49, handed buns and other food items to his friend who also lives in the Kenanga zone.
“We worked in the army together and I live right outside the lockdown area. He has young children and needs some rations.
“I am lucky my area is not affected, so the least I can do is pass him some food,” he said.
A doctor from a health clinic who was based at the Masjid al-Imam al-Nawawi in the Melor zone said they hoped to test 750 people a day.
“In the Melor zone, there are over 5,700 people. There will be shifts of two teams. One from 8am to 2pm and the other will be from 2pm to 8pm,” she said.
She said this was considered a mass screening as there are more than 22,000 people.
“Our progress is based on the cooperation of the residents,” she said.
There are six makeshift testing centres, two in each zone. Kenanga, Melor and Mawar have 22,369 residents in total.
Kuala Muda OCPD Asst Comm Adzli Abu Shah, in a press conference, said every member of a household would need to wear a pink wristband, which means they are not allowed to leave the house.
The head of the household, meanwhile, must wear a white wristband.
This means that this person can go to the other zones within the lockdown radius to get food as some zones do not have sundry shops.
ACP Adzli noted that there are 5,262 houses in the three zones.–The Star